Germz wrote:At least Hoffman was 28 and not 24. He'll still be dangerous in Florida for awhile yet but I think he gave us his best years. Watch me eat my words on this one.

It will be interesting to see how he's deployed. Despite his great shot and being called a 30 goal scorer, Hoffman never actually hit that mark, in part because his usage in Ottawa was uneven. Playing regular minutes with a skilled distributor like Barkov or Huberdeau could push his goal totals higher.

ColinM wrote:

sensdiehard wrote:Thought we would get a 1st for Hoff, but I also thought we would get one for Spezza. Trading big contracts in a cap era doesnt always return the same value as we would expect for just a hockey trade i guess. 2 GM's couldnt get a 1st for Hoff. Hard to understand how every GM in the league knew Hoff was available, he was in the TSN top 10 trade list, and yet not one of the 30 GM's wanted him enough to top an offer of Boedker? I guess SJ can use the cap space they freed whereas we werent likely to. Had we got a 2nd and a 4th, i cant imagine anyone would be praising Dorion for that one either.

Exactly. In a nutshell the choice was between a 28 year 3rd liner or the 55th (or so) overall pick in the draft. It's unlikely either will be impact players. A 21 year prospect for Hoffman (even if it was someone like Lazar back when he was traded to Calgary) would have been nice but it's clear that's not where the market was at.

The full package was a 2nd, 4th and 5th. I don't understand this minimizing of the value of draft picks - last year year our second and fourth round picks were Formenton and Batherson, the year before Dahlen and Burgess. I wouldn't deal either of those pairs for Boedker, not even close. Drafting is the only thing this team does well, and if we wanted to spend 4M on a shitty third liner, we could have done that on July 1st.

Not to mention that trading a 2nd is infinitely easier than trading a shitty 3rd liner.

For sure I don’t want to minimize draft picks as, especially in a cap era, they are so key and scarcer to come by. But failing to get a 1st for Hoff would not have gotten Dorion many hugs or high fives either.

In a full on all-in rebuild, I would think even the lacklustre draft picks SJ got would be the better option for us. But im getting the impression that an all-in rebuild isn’t the plan yet. And I think its pretty close to a 50/50 case right now I would be able to make for a full rebuild vs. hey, things aren’t that bad, if we keep EK, keep plodding through the hard years of developing, this team can be competitive enough to keep on course rather than an 18% chances at a #1 pick. That chance may well be easier to get when not even trying for it.

Its hard not to be suspicious that this year was long marked on Melnyks calendar as a peak year in the payroll\development cycle. All contracts structured and trades made seem to point to going for it until now when a long term decision on Karlsson’s contract was due. Mika, Brassard, even things like Burrows fit better when thought about in that context. Due at a time when we are about 5 years from wanting to peak again as season ticket sales for a new downtown arena are underway. 5 years of Melnyk now minimizing expenses in the trough of the cycle as he waits out buyers for a best offer which could take years. That is if we don’t take him at his word that he aint selling and people like Ballard, Wong, and Wirtz weren’t phased with fan rebellions against them either.